MommyBlog

… oops.   It looks like we need to re-baby proof the house.   Cooper is mobile!

Though he’s been “scooting” for a while now, The Crawl finally clicked and my little superman is now able to get wherever it is he wants to go.   Not very fast, mind you, but he can get there.

It happened (oh, Irony!) on Sunday afternoon when Kenny and I were on our date and Cooper and Casey had their first ever Daddy Day at home.   Figures, right?   At least Casey got those first moves on video!   Anyway, it really hit me on Monday when Kenny, Cooper and I were playing in their room.   I got up to go to the bathroom, and Kenny followed me in there a minute later to ask a question.   As we were turning back to the door to go back to their room, who should pop into the doorway but Cooper!   It seems that he decided to see where everybody went and followed us.   Time to dig up the baby gates and outlet covers again!

My little bumble is also turning into a champion eater.   He is a baby food connoisseur.   I’ve dabbled in making some homemade for him – which he definitely prefers – and his favorites are carrots, apples, plain yogurt and sweet potatoes.

He is also making his mind known in other areas.   For example, I can no longer read to Kenny while I nurse.   Cooper twists and turns and tries to sit up and see what I’m doing.   Gone, too, are the days of being able to plop him in the floor with a toy and do something engaging with Kenny (like a board game or a puzzle).   Coop wants to be in the center of it all, and he will sit right on top of whatever we’re trying to do and start shoving the pieces into his mouth.   Who new that CandyLand cards were edible?   Whether it is his way of trying to play, or his way of getting attention, it pretty much has determined that he is a Person.  

Nobody puts Baby in a corner, right??   ha ha…

If my original purpose for starting MommyBlog was to document my life with my boys – a sort-of virtual baby book, if you would – then today is one to recount in full, because I want to remember it!

Today after church, I took Kenny into downtown DC, to the Kennedy Center, to see the National Symphony Orchestra.   It was one of their “Concerts for Kids” and the theme was baseball.   What could be better for Kenny’s introduction to live classical music??   Kids were even encouraged to wear their favorite team jersey.   We arrived an hour early for what the NSO calls “The Petting Zoo.”   Scores of volunteers lined the walls of the lobby with instruments from the symphony for the kids to touch and play.   Rows and rows of good granny types sat behind long tables furiously sanitizing mouthpieces and reeds as young musicians showed the curious children how to play everything from a tuba to a tympani.   Kenny played the French horn, a sax, a tuba, a clarinet, a snare drum, a violin and a cello.   He was enthralled that he could actually make the instruments make sounds, and even declared to the bemused bassoonist that his instrument sounded just like a “hiney zoink.”   (That’s how we refer to passing gas around here.)

The concert itself was brilliant.   The orchestra played variations of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” the National Anthem and a new arrangement of “Casey at the Bat” among others, but Kenny’s favorite was a premier arrangement of a concerto for Piccolo and Contra-Bassoon.   It was a three minute revel of hiney zoinks  and we giggled through the entire piece.   Thank goodness is was meant to be comical!   There was a guest appearance from a local Suzuki school and violinists from ages three to  nine performed, which absolutely amazed Kenny.   There were some funny spots – at one point in Casey at the Bat, during a moment of “suspenseful silence,” Kenny said quite loudly, “Is it over yet??”   There were chuckles all around, but everyone there had kids so it was all in good fun.  

After the concert ended, with cheers from Kenny and unfettered appreciation, I said, “Would you like to go out for dessert?”   He said, “Can we find a place with cake and ice cream?”   We drove around DC for a bit – I took him all over the campus of GWU, where I went to college, then we headed into the Dupont Circle area, where I lived my senior year.   We ended up at one of my favorite college haunts – Kramer Books & Afterwards – a chic, arty bookstore with a gourmet cafe and dessert bar inside.   Undaunted by the half hour wait for a table, we read books in the children’s section and then squeezed through the crowd of hip and fashionable late-Sunday-brunchers.   It’s a place where theater types and artists and writers will command tables for hours.   When I was in school, there was a $7 per person minimum to sit at a table – today it’s gone up to $12!   I squinted at our handsome server and said, “We only wanted dessert… is that ok?”   He looked at Kenny in his Oriole’s jersey, who was already diving into the complimentary muffins, and laughed, “Yeah, that’s ok.”   We ordered a piece of double chocolate cake with ice cream and a glass of milk for Kenny and coffee for me.  

While we waited for our order to come up, we hit the restrooms, which were up three flights of winding stairs above the towering bookshelves.   “This is fun, Mama!” Kenny chortled on the endless climb.   We did our business and headed down to our table.   Kenny’s milk glass was taller than he is and he dove in.   We chatted about the concert and our cake arrived.   It was enormous with at least a half pint of ice cream on top.   Kenny didn’t even look up as he shoved a giant spoonful into his mouth.   “Mama!   This is even better than the cakes we make!” he crowed.   We didn’t hold back as we chomped on the decadent tower before us.   About halfway into it, Kenny shouted, “Mama!   I have to POOP!”   Shocked glances all around from the crowed cafe, but I couldn’t stop laughing.   We caught the waiter and asked for a to-go box, then trundled back up the three flights of stairs to the bathroom.   Kenny sat there for an eternity, made all the more hilarious by the fact that everytime a nugget plopped, the automatic flusher went off, sending him into a fit of giggles even as he tried to finish.

We left Kramer Books and hopped through the pouring rainn back to our car and drove home, talking and laughing all the way.   We even got caught in traffic and it took us over an hour to get home, but the time flew by.   Casey and Cooper were happy to see us when we rolled in at dinner time, I know, and Kenny was eager to share all about his day with his beloved Daddy.   When I tucked him in tonight, he asked, “Mama?   How fun was your day?”   I said, “Kenny, it was the best day ever.   How fun was your day?”   He whispered, “It was my best day ever, too” and he covered my face with kisses.

The best day ever.

Or at least, crawling back into the  rhythym of daily life.

Before I start really writing, I have a question for my readers who have “mommy blogs” of their own: do you ever sit down to write – at the end of the day, at naptime, or whenever  – and think, “I just finally got a moment free from the little buggers, and now I’m supposed to think of something poignant/witty/meaningful to write about them??  Please.   Someone shake me a martini and give me another hobby!”   Sorry.   I don’t mean that.   But anytime I take time off from writing on this blog, it takes me a while to get back into the groove.

So what have I been doing these last two weeks?   We went to Florida last week.   Kenny, Cooper and I flew down (by ourselves) and met Casey at his parent’s house.   The flight couldn’t have gone better.   I’ve flown “alone” with them before, so I was well-prepared, but Kenny outdid himself with his maturity, charm and good nature.   We barely made our flight – in spite of arriving at the airport two hours early – due to a glitch in the airline’s computers, and I ended up having to run (full tilt) from security to the gate with Cooper in the hiking backpack (cackling wildly at the ride) and Kenny in the jogging stroller holding all our carry-ons in his lap and trying to get his shoes back on by himself.   Yee haw.

Made it we did, and had a really terrific time in sunny (if slightly uncharacteristically chilly) Florida.   I ran every morning, went on four dates with Casey and read a novel just for fun.   I played with my kids one-on-one, chased Kenny in the sand and didn’t have to stress over the everyday mundane chores of life at home.   Photo evidence of our joy:

Casey was only able to stay for half the trip, heading off to a convention in Vegas, so Kenny, Cooper and I ventured home to Maryland “alone”  on Friday.   It went nearly as well, and Casey walked in the door at home about two hours after we did.   The weekend here in Maryland was gorgeous – even warmer than Florida, and Casey and I were inspired to unpack some of the boxes that have been sitting in our garage since the move to Atlanta.   We got through six big ones, and then started on the books last night.      No more empty bookshelves.   It’s about time, right??

So what else is new?   Cooper is about to cut tooth number two.   Kenny daily refines his talent of debate and negotiation.   Casey is working hard at the new job and doing great.   Dudley is wondering what happened to the dog that come with our house-sitter to play with him for the week and moping a little at finding himself back at the bottom of the family totem pole.   Me?   I’m actually trying to listen to my weekly Bible study lesson for tomorrow (Beth Moore – she rocks!) while I write and catch up on emails.  

I’m also contemplating the conundrum of fashion in the life of a stay at home mom.   I really need some new clothes, but then wonder, why?   To get strained carrots all over?   To add ironing to my Things To Do?   And who exactly am I going to look mod for?   Well, Casey, duh, but Kenny and Cooper probably prefer me in my pajamas.   How many days a week do I go out and about to anywhere other than the grocery store or a friend’s house?   I can hardy justify a whole new wardrobe for my weekly trek to church, eh?     Then I start to think, “I need to get out more.”   Then I start to think, “So not worth messing up Cooper’s nap schedule.”   Waaa.

Cooper is turning into a little person.     You know, babies are just kind of delicious little blobs when they first come out, then they morph into funny little creatures who giggle and coo and laugh, then suddenly one day you realize that they actually might be thinking something.

Today Cooper went past the “Waaa!   You took my toy away!” milestone and entered the “Hey Mom!   I’m tired of this silly rattle.   Give me something good!” milestone.   I had set him in the floor with some toys while I colored with Kenny a few feet away.   Cooper, who is moments away from a crawl, rolled and pulled himself over to the coffee table where we were coloring.   He pushed up on his hands and reached with all his might to the lower shelf where a little board book that I’ve read to him a few times had been set, grasped it, pulled it down and then squealed with delight.   Then he looked at me and said, “Dada!”   (This translates of course into “Dearest Mum, will you read this delightful book to me please?”)   “Cooper!   Do you want to read that book?”   He giggled and tried to pull himself into my lap.   I complied and set him on my legs and read the book a few times through.   Then he rolled off and went after one of Kenny’s crayons.

Busy though I may be, I was so excited to see that he’s starting to think, you know?   He can’t talk, but he figured out how to communicate to me what he wanted to do.   Not only that, but he wanted to   do something specific.   He’s a genius.

… but not for long.   Cooper, Casey and I all got adjusted at the chiropractor today so the end is surely in sight for this nasty week of illness we’ve been consumed by.   I realize that my last post was not only boooooring, but way too graphic in regards to the vomiting details, so let’s move on, and say only in closing that we are slowly getting better from the Virus of Nastiness that has plagued our castle.

On to something new:

Cooper is FINALLY getting his first tooth!   It’s taking it’s time coming in, which has been agony on the little bugger.   He does enjoy playing with it with his tongue, when it’s not causing him to melt into a puddle of tears.

Kenny has learned to dress himself completely – from socks to unders and everything in between.   It was purely self-defence: Casey and I were so sick over the weekend that he was pretty much left to his own devices, and I guess at some point getting dressed was on his agenda.   In fact, on Sunday after putting Cooper down for a nap, Casey and I both fell asleep – I think we each thought the other had Kenny – and Kenny played completely unattended for two hours.   He took streamers and party hats and decorated the living room for a party that he then imagined and entertained himself with.   Who needs cartoons, I ask you!  

We are headed off to a vacation of sorts this week as well.   We are flying down to Florida to visit with Casey’s parents, and Casey himself will be going to a business conference in Vegas for a week while Kenny and I teach Cooper how to surf and get a tan.   Yee Haw.   We have a sweet newly wed couple to   house-sit for us, and they are bringing their new puppy.   This will either be a really really fun week for Dudley, or a really really awful one for the puppy, I haven’t yet decided.

My next order of business is to think of something more interesting than a laundry list to blog about before all of you faithful readers give up on me.   I actually have a stack of new books to review and another contest give-away to orchestrate.     I need to get busy.    But, alas,  Prince Cooper calls to me from his crib…. “Mamamamamamamamamamamaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa….”

Since my last post, we have had some drama around here.   It all started when Casey went out of town for four days.   Ok, that wasn’t the start of the drama, just the backdrop.   It really started when, Tuesday afternoon, Kenny started projectile vomiting all over the bathroom.   He did make it to the toilet, but not exactly in the toilet, which was pretty messy, but the effort was a gallant one.   I thought it was some bad milk he’s had (he found a sippy cup from the morning with some warm chocolate milk in it), so I let his tummy rest and then gave him a bland dinner.  

Oops.   That came up less than an hour later.   We were reading books in bed and he said, “I think I’m going to throw   up again.” I was nursing Cooper in the bed with him, so I handed him a little bowl that he uses for playdough and *wham* out came more vomit than I’ve ever seen outside of Poltergeist.   It splashed out of the bowl and across the floor, and the sweet little guy tried to run to the bathroom before the rest came and ended up dropping the bowl full of throw-up all over his floor.   Then yakked all the way to the bathroom.   With tears streaming down his face, he heaved and heaved, then I cleaned him up and carried him to bed.   Cooper was, by this time, screaming in rage at having been dumped on the floor, not too far from the wet mess, so that I could attend to Kenny in the bathroom.   We blotted it up and Kenny passed out.  

Did I mention that right before we got his pjs on, we discovered that we were out of pull-ups?   He’s been potty-trained since September, but still wears a pull-up to bed – rather needlessly, as 99.9% of the time it’s dry in the morning.   So I put him in two pairs of “unders” and crossed my fingers.   Oops, again, and he was in bed with me at 3AM, soaked to the skin.   I changed him and settled him under the covers, and Cooper woke up.   I nursed him, climbed back in bed with a snoring Kenny and passed out myself.  

The next morning, Kenny threw up one more time for good measure (he downed a full glass of tepid water while I wasn’t looking), then improved as the day went on.   He even took his first nap in nearly 8 months!   I though that Cooper and I were in the clear, but last night at 2AM, I woke with a seasick feeling.   I got up four or five times, didn’t throw up, and went back to bed.   Then I got up and threw up like there was a demon in me – all over the bathroom sink, toilet, floor and myself.   Kenny and Cooper slept through three hours of that, and I finally got it all out and everything cleaned up by 6.   At which time Kenny woke up, very hungry, and asked for breakfast.   I convinced him to watch a few cartoons so I could go to sleep.  

That lasted for only a little while before Cooper woke up.   I almost fainted when I lifted him out of the crib, and had to sit in the floor with him for a good ten minutes before I could pick him back up and get him changed and nursed.   Then I put him right down again for his morning nap – a little early, but it was self defence!   Casey arrived home at 9AM, bleary-eyed from a red-eye flight, took one look at me and sent me to bed.   But not before mentioning that I was the only family member who didn’t get a flu shot this year.   “Lazy-girl,” I mumbled, and  then slept another three hours.   In the meantime, he called my dad, who came over to help for the rest of the day.  

Dad was a trooper, even setting up his laptop next to Kenny and his playdough so that he could get a little work done in the midst of the circus.   The two of them went to the grocery store for some Gatorade at one point, and I napped again with Cooper.   Casey got home at 8 and is now snoring with Kenny in his bed.   Speaking of troopers, he’s been up for nearly 48 hours from  his crazy travel schedule, and gave up any possibility of a nap this morning when he came in to shower and change clothes in order to take care of me and the kiddos!

I’m a little better now (at least I’m not tossing my cookies!) but I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck.   I kind-of look like it, too.   So far Cooper hasn’t done anything more than the run-of-the-mill spitting up (maybe a little more than usual, but my milk can’t be that stellar-quality today, now can it??), so I’m hoping that his little body is spared the ravage that Kenny and I endured.   Casey, too, seems to be in the clear for now, but he’s so exhausted it’s hard to tell.

So now I’m going to bed.   Just looking at the computer screen is making me queasy…

I’m currently in a bit of a quandary, and I need some advice.

Right now Kenny calls about 50% of our adult friends “Mr.” or “Mrs.” So-and-So, and the other 50% are “Mr+first name” and Miss+first name.”   I am a bit confused as to how we got into this mess, but so it goes.   I think that it started because the first significant adults in his life (other than family) were his gymnastics teachers and Sunday School teachers, all who chose to introduce themselves as “Miss Martina” and the like.   Then there were close friends who are not family, who are nonetheless called “Aunt Jana and Uncle Kimo” – we’ve got a few sets of those – then the remainder who got a little mixed in here and there.   So going to our Friday night homegroup, Kenny knows most of the adults by the Mr. and Mrs. moniker, and a few by the Miss+first name title.

My quandary is that I’d prefer that he call all adults by the more formal Mr. & Mrs – though as far as gymnastics and Sunday school goes, I don’t think I can change that one.   One of my friends, whom Kenny calls “Miss Jody,” instructs her kids to call us Mr. & Mrs, which I think is lovely, and which Kenny thinks is comical.     Casey is a little more casual than I, and often introduces Kenny to his friends by Mr.+first name.   I think that most men think this is cute,  while most women think this verges on disrespect.   None of my friends have called me out on it, but I’ve gotten a sense from more than one that they would prefer being known as the Mrs.

I talked to Kenny about it today, and suggested that we switch to Mr. & Mrs. for Mommy and Daddy’s friends, and keep only the “Miss” for his teachers.   He, of course, got downright confused.   Hm.    It does bring up that he will need to remember a whole new set of names, but I don’t think that inconvenience is a good reason to not do it.

I’d like to hear the popular opinion on this from all you readers out there.   Obviously I can use on the Mr. & Mrs. with anyone new he meets, but how to change the ones he already calls “Miss?”   It is an area where Casey and I differ, too, so of course we need to come to an agreement on this one.   I’d love to hear your thoughts!

(PS – Doesn’t this goat look like Dudley?!?)

Do you ever feel like you spend the day walking backwards?   I felt like that on Friday.   I had a To Do list a mile long, which automatically means that Cooper doesn’t nap, Kenny doesn’t stay put in “quiet time” and Dudley decides today’s the day to bring a large stick into the living room through his dog door to chew up on the rug.   In other words, not only did I not make a dent in the list, but I ended up further behind at the end of the day than I started.   I tried to juggle playing with the kids and  doing housework and did neither very well.   In fact, I pretty much failed miserably at both.   To top it off, I had to make dinner for our weekly small group and get everyone (and a hot meal) out the door on time.   It was the kind of day when you realize just before kissing your hubby welcome home that you smell not-so-vaguely like vomit and there is a very good possibility that you haven’t remembered to brush your teeth.   Or hair.   Oh heck – or showered or even had a chance to pee in the last four hours.

Saturday looked up, it was Valentine’s Day after all! and Casey and I took the boyz to my parent’s house, where they were also watching  my nieces,  and headed out on the town for a fantastic dinner. We lingered over cocktails in the bar and didn’t even spend the whole time talking about the kids.   Now that’s romantic!

I almost brought up to Casey that I’m feeling a little bogged down in housework and such, but we had so much fun I completely forgot about my own petty woes.   I feel certain that I could catch up if I just had an hour a day to do it – but with Kenny no longer napping (he hasn’t since this summer) it just never happens.   I do try to to enforce quiet time, too, but then I start to feel guilty because Cooper’s nap time is the only time we have to play together one-on-one, which he craves so much.     Then there are the evenings, but who wants to mop the floor at 10 at night?   I can’t even see the floor at that hour…

So when do you all do your housework?   And how?   Do you occupy the kids with something?   TV?   Do it during naptimes? Hire a nanny?   A housekeeper?   Flip with your husband?   Tell me your secrets…

One of Casey’s best friends left today for what will most likely be close to an 18 month deployment with the Marine Corps.   He leaves behind his wife and four daughters, ranging in age from 11 years to 9 months.   Casey went to his house to drive him to the airport at 6AM  this morning, and got to the house in time to witness a “Yellow Ribbon Ceremony” in the front yard.   Hank and “his girls” stood bundled up in the dark to pray and tie a ribbon around the oak tree in their front yard, where it will stay until he comes home.

We have been friends with this family for about two years and they have become some of our closest friends.   They were the ones that showed up with pizza and paper plates the night before we moved to Atlanta and we sat laughing and crying amidst the boxes as we said goodbye.   Even more poignant, they were the ones who showed up with pizza the night we moved back from Atlanta 7 days later, and we sat amidst the re-delivered boxes and laughed and cried some more.   Casey has been meeting for coffee with Hank at 6 AM every Thursday for the past two years, and we have bounced between each others houses several times a week, sharing coffee and chocolate cake and letting the kids run wild.   It’s hard to imagine not seeing them together for so long.

Tonight as Casey worked late, Kenny and I went over to share (another) pizza (do we need to start learning to cook?) and hang out a little on the girls’  first night alone.   I can’t imagine saying goodbye to Casey for a year and a half.   I have a hard time when he’s out of town for more than two nights in a row.   I can’t imagine him leaving Cooper a 7 month old baby and coming home when he’s two.   I can’t imagine for myself the sacrifice they are making as a family for what they believe in.

I was trying to explain to Kenny a few days ago that “Mr. Hank” was going away for a long time to fight in a battle.   Kenny loves to read his little picture Bible, and so we turned to the story of Gideon and his army.   “Is Mr. Hank going to fight in the battle with God’s army?” my sweet boy asked.   “Kind of like that, honey.”   “I want to show him my Bible so he knows about the battle!”   Later that day, sure enough, he toted the Bible over to their house and showed Mr. Hank a picture of some soldiers in battle.   Hank  got a little choked up and gave him a big hug.  

Anyway, tonight we’re a little blue… Casey is missing his best friend  and I am sick at heart to think of  my friend  separated from her husband for so long.

Godspeed, Mr. Hank…